The Silver Screen

SO, WHICH TEN MOVIES would you preserve for your old age? Off the top of your head, mind you; and no researching; and list only movies you've actually seen; this isn't a wish list.

In no particular order:

• Last Year at Marienbad
• Beat the Devil
• The Lady Eve
• Scenes from a Marriage
• L'Avventura
• The Ghost and Mrs Muir
• Rope
• Rashomon
• Les Enfants du paradis
• Chelsea Girls

We're just back from seeing Last Year at Marienbad on a big screen in a Portland neighborhood theater: the movie still holds up beautifully. I'm closer to knowing what the hell it's about now than I was in 1962, and I've seen those halls and gardens, and had a few ennuis of my own (none recently, thankfully), so now I can relax and enjoy the sound of the film, the pace, the architecture. It's still an avant-garde thing, I suppose, but its connection to the French Baroque is a perfectly straight line.